


But if I try to find you there are only the shadows.

by Kaesteranya



Category: Gintama
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-04
Updated: 2011-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-15 09:32:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/159439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaesteranya/pseuds/Kaesteranya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hide and seek, hunter to hunted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	But if I try to find you there are only the shadows.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for December 17, 2008.

Katsura tells himself that it’s just his imagination, just him being the rightfully paranoid idiot he ought to be given the fact that he is the head of a Jooishishi faction and one of the most wanted men in Edo. He tells himself he’s jumping at shadows, making monsters out of the milling crowds that flood the streets, that there isn’t someone lurking just beyond his peripheral vision, watching him.

 

Still, Katsura knows Takasugi Shinsuke with the same intimate familiarity that he has with regard to his own body. He knows the name of the shade of green of those eyes, the exact pitch and depth of that voice, the grooves on the pads of those fingers and the arrangement of lines on the palms of both of those hands. He knows that hide and seek has been Takasugi’s favorite game since they were children – it was the first thing they had had in common, the initial reason why they became friends. Now, however, it is impossible for him to tell who is seeking who.

 

He thinks that maybe, at sudden and unexpected corners, he looks up and finally sees the one he’s been looking for. It’s hard to miss the details, really, when suddenly it feels like any crooked smile or black pipe or tousled hair or patterned kimono could be him. A blink, though, and it’s someone else. Then, when Katsura is tired of looking and his guard is at its lowest, he’ll hear that laugh or feel that breath against the back of his neck.

 

“Found you.”

 

And by the time Katsura turns, there’s nothing and no one but ghosts in his eyes and the taste of opium and ash on his tongue.


End file.
